This weekend we attended a church wedding. I know, right? A wedding in a church! Maybe it’s because I spend my time with a bunch of hooligans and heathens, but this was actually the first church wedding (or even indoor wedding) I had been to since my own in 2001. And since it was held in fancy schmancy Newport Beach (of The OC fame), I had to dress all of my guys up in formal attire.
Now we’s simple folk and we don’t really go for them fancy clothes, and I don’t like spending big money on clothes I know will only be worn once or twice. So I hit up some consignment shops and overstock stores like Ross and Marshall’s and managed to throw together two formal outfits for my kids for under $30. The one thing I couldn’t find was a cute tie for Milo to match his hand-me-down navy pinstripe trousers. So I did what any crafty momma would do–found a $3 tie on clearance in the men’s section and made a few cuts and and stitches and managed to make a very cute boy’s tie.
This is how I done it:

Flip it over and remove all of the elements on the back, including labels and the little stitch that holds the back flaps together.

From the widest part of the tie, cut the tie to the desired finished length (you want the full length of the entire tie from the top of the “knot” portion to the tip, not just the length of the “tail” pieces). My tie was about 8″ long for a size 18-month outfit.

Place the narrow end of the tie against the back of your cut piece and cut it off to the desired length.

Cut off an additional piece from the narrow end to make your “knot” piece. It should be about 1/2 the length of the first piece you cut. For a fatter knot, cut it longer, for a skinnier knot, cut a bit shorter. The pictured knot piece is 4″ long.

To make the knot:
Set a steam iron to the “silk” setting.
Turn the knot piece over so that the back flaps are facing up. Fold the left side towards the center at a slight angle and press flat with the steam iron.
Do the same to the right side. The left and right sides should slightly overlap each other.
When you flip the knot over it should look like the second picture above–a trapezoid that is longer on the top than on the bottom.
Still working from the back, tuck the overhanging pieces down to make a little pocket and press with the iron.
When you flip it over, the finished knot piece should look like the last picture in the series above.

Place the large tail piece right side down and open it up.

Fold the bottom side up and at a slight angle to the desired width of your finished tie. Press with the iron and cut off the excess material in a straight line across the back of the tie.

Flip the tie over, folding the other side under at a matching angle. When the tie is the desired width and the angles are correct, press with the iron.

Flip the tie back over and cut the excess material off in a straight line that slightly overlaps the bottom flap. Make a small stitch by hand, stitching these two flaps together. This small stitch is very important, as it will keep the tie from opening up and falling apart on you!

Place the second, smaller tail piece right-side down onto the larger tail piece (also right-side down). Line the tops of the tail pieces together and either machine or hand stitch them together. Trim the top so that the raw edge is even and straight.
Also, make sure that the small tail piece has a small stitch keeping it’s flaps together, too. If it does not, make one small stitch to hold the two flaps together the same way you did with the large tail piece.

Make a dimple in the tail by curving the top as shown above and running a piece of thread through to hold the shape. Tie off the thread.

It should look like this.

Place the knot piece right-side down and open up the top flap. Place the tail pieces right side down and re-close the flap. Hand stitch the top flap to the tails.

Like this!

Re-fold and re-tuck the knot so that it closes over the tail and hand stitch the back. Make sure your thread goes through the tail and stitches everything together, but doesn’t show through the front of the tie.

Run a piece of thread through the bottom of the knot piece and tie a knot in the thread to cinch it together.

It should be pinched like the above picture. Secure with a double knot.

Sew a piece of elastic to the back of your new tie. The elastic piece should be just slightly smaller than the collar of the child’s shirt. It should fit just a little bit snugly, but be very careful not to make it too tight! You could also use a piece of matching ribbon that closes with velcro in the back.
Alex of Crafting with My Cubs has a great tutorial for an alternative closure using velcro instead of elastic.

Finally, find a super cute baby and put your new tie on him. Now every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man!
By the way, I think it would be really cute to have a matching tie for Daddy. It would make a great Father’s Day gift.

About Marigold | Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

Marigold Haske is the designer, maker, and author behind the craft blog Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! where she offers quirky and functional crafts for the home and family. Chock-full of tutorials, inspiration, sew-alongs and irreverent humor for the DIY mama, Marigold writes for an ever-growing community of artful souls who embrace the handmade life. You can also find her work on Disney Family and Disney Imagicademy's Parent Portal. She lives, works and plays in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her charming husband and their two exceptionally silly sons, Huck and Milo.

thanks, this is JUST what i was looking for today, for a church program requirement this weekend and my 5-year-old-usually-non-tie-wearin-fella! I’m going to put it on my “to-do list because it’s so rockin” blog roll. thanks again.

Rock on! I have been trying to figure out how to get my hands on a toddler skinny tie for my 14 month old’s Blues Brothers costume – this is perfect, thank you for the great tute! And I can’t wait to start cutting up Daddy’s ties for picture day…PS – your little men are too stinking cute!!!

I found this tutorial through the “celebrate the boy” month on Made by Rae. I just had a question about the batting on the inside of the tie. Did you cut the batting to fit the new tie width? Thanksnikwolthuis@yahoo.com

Okay, that is AMAZING awesome!!! I am so going to try this. You are the best. I am totally doing this. And blogging about it (giving the credit back to you of course). I am completely in love with this idea!

Thank you so much for sharing this! What a great idea! I have a terrible time trying to find ties that will fit my boys & my husband has a billion ties. I’m sure I can talk him into giving some up! Thanks again!

Thank you so much for posting this tutorial! I just finished making ties for my two little boys. I asked their grandpa’s to each donate a few ties. Now they have a tie from Grandpa! They love it. Thank you!

I can’t thank you enough. I have seen a dozen tutorials on how to make ties from fabric, but none on repurposing a tie and my husband has at least a dozen he will not wear anymore. You are a Genius!! Thank, thank, thank!!

Do you know your cute boy’s picture is being used in an advertisement for Kid to Kid (a children’s second hand store)? I never would have known it but I found your site by searching google for how to make a boys necktie and when I checked my email today there was that same picture from your post. (I’ll send you a link if you haven’t seen it already.)

Anyway, the tie… It’s SO DARLING! Thank you for the great tutorial. My baby boy is turning 1 next month and I want cute pics of him in dressy clothes. I’m so excited to try this.

Thanks! I contacted the corporate office and they were very nice and apologetic and told me that they usually use stock photos for their ads. Hopefully this will prevent them from using non-stock photos without permission in the future.

Very good idea for little one’s ties!! For my older boy, who is 6, I just cut several inches off the large end of the tie following the angle. Fold the tip up straight and stitch, then fold in the angled sides and stitch to form a new triangle. Further up a mans tie is more narrow and is the perfect width for an older child. Of course you have to have Daddy tie it but it’s sooooo cute!

I just made a tie for our 3 1/2 year-old ring bearer using your pattern and tutorial! It came out really well! Thanks so much for posting this! I’d post a picture to Flickr, but I don’t have an account. But if you can imagine plum paisley in little guy size, there you go! Thanks again!

Search this blog

Instagram @stinky_crafter

Contact Me

Search this blog

Archives

Archives

Labels

Labels

CREATIVE COMMONS

Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!, the blog, and all works contained within designed by Marigold Haske are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Conditions of this license may be waived with written permission by Marigold Haske. Guest posts written by regular contributors and guest bloggers remain the Intellectual Property of those bloggers. Permissions for use of words and images in guest and contributor posts must be obtained by those bloggers.

DISCLOSURE

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by Marigold Haske. Some posts are written for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! by guest contributors. These posts will always be identified. For questions about this blog, please contact marigoldhaske@gmail.com.
This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.
The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org